San francisco California- Ruffo, a startup that simplifies buying and selling real estate from abroad, was selected by Y Combinator to be part of its renowned acceleration program.
Ruffo was founded in 2021 by Nelson Muñoz, Noe Branagan and Luis Pellerano, three young Dominicans who seek to transform the complicated and expensive process of acquiring a home from abroad into an easy, simple and safe experience. “We are honored to be part of the Y Combinator program this summer,” said Nelson Muñoz, CEO of Ruffo. “We will use Y Combinator’s investment to continue growing our operations and help more immigrants achieve their dream of buying a home in their home country.”
Reimagining the sale of real estate
As immigrants, the founders of Ruffo have personally experienced the problem they seek to solve: the time, cost and complication of traveling internationally or to a consulate to draft and sign documents. With Ruffo, foreign buyers can generate and validly sign and notarize documents for the purchase of their home in just minutes from their computer or mobile phone. “To date we have facilitated the purchase of more than 50 properties by foreign buyers,” said Luis Pellerano, COO of Ruffo. “We have many clients who could not travel to the Dominican Republic or to the nearest consulate to sign powers of attorney, affidavits and other documents. We have rescued dozens of transactions that were going to fall through, benefiting not only the buyer, but also the developer and real estate agent who were able to close their sale thanks to Ruffo.”
“Our technology platform has made document generation, signing and notarization much more efficient,” said Noe Braganan, Ruffo’s CTO. “Before Ruffo, the process took days or weeks and you had to physically travel by plane, train or car. With Ruffo, from the comfort of their home the buyer fills out a short form in our application, the relevant documents are automatically generated and the documents are immediately signed and notarized using online notarization with a notary in the United States. The buyer can complete the process in less than 30 minutes and then Ruffo takes care of apostilling the documents for their validity in the country where the property is located.”
About the startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC)
Y Combinator (YC) is the world’s most recognized startup accelerator. Since its founding in 2005, YC has funded more than 3,000 startups, with a combined valuation of more than $600 billion. Companies like Airbnb, Stripe, and Rappi have all gone through their acceleration program.
In addition to an investment of US$500,000, YC offers a “training camp” for intensive training and advice, whose cycle culminates in the so-called “Demo Day”, or presentation of the companies to important investors.
About Rufo
Ruffo facilitates the closing of cross-border real estate transactions, simplifying the signing of documents by buyers living abroad. Ruffo’s mission is to make cross-border transactions easier, simpler and more secure. You can learn more about Ruffo by visiting our website www.ruffo.com.
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